Well, we'll all bow together, please, and let us unite our hearts in prayer. Let's all pray. Our Heavenly Father, again we draw near to Thee and we enter into Thy presence in the Saviour's name and through the merits of His redeeming blood. We thank Thee that we're privileged to gather ourselves together in the house of the Lord on this another Sabbath day. We approach Thee with praise and with gladness. We come to worship Thee. We come to meet with Thee and to hear from Thee. And we pray that we will experience Thy blessing and Thy presence among us as we gather ourselves around the Scriptures of truth. We pray, O Lord, that the other gatherings with our young people and our children will likewise be blessed of God. Help all those who teach and instruct the young of the church, and may thy hand be upon them. Less is now in our study of the Word. We pray that thou wilt draw near to us here and to those who watch on, and may thy presence be known to us all. May our hearts be edified by the Scriptures of truth. We pray this in the Saviour's name and for His sake and glory. Amen. We'll turn to John chapter 1, John's Gospel chapter 1. And I want to welcome all who are with us today in the Bible class, and all who watch on. Trust the Lord will bless each heart and each soul. John 1, and we'll read from the verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made. that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And we land there knowing that the Lord will bless the reading of this His own infallible Word. Now, we've already noted that the first three Gospels view Jesus Christ together. and for that reason they are called the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. The word refers to the fact that they view the Lord from the same perspective, they see Him from the same angle. Each gospel, of course, has its own theme and we know that already from having looked at the first three gospels in a little detail, setting forth what each one does present. But that means, of course, that we look at them and see that they view Christ together. They are presenting the Lord to us with regard to His humanity. That is the major thought, the major emphasis of the first three Gospels. Though each one presents the Lord from a different perspective, they all view Him together from the vantage point of His humanity. That doesn't mean that they don't show the Lord's deity, because they certainly do. But their emphasis is on His humanity, viewing Him from the earthly standpoint. But when we come to the Gospel of John, we find that the emphasis is entirely different. And in the case of John's Gospel, we see him emphasizing the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who is God, showing us His true deity. Now, in the first three Gospels, we saw that they present to us the three offices of Christ. The Gospel of Matthew shows Him as King, the Gospel of Mark as Prophet, and then Luke reveals Him as Priest. And we should always keep in mind that those three offices of Christ as our Mediator could only exist in Him because of the fact that He is both God and man. We have that great statement in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Christ could only be mediator, He could only be prophet, priest and king between God and man by being related to both parties whom He came to represent, that is, God and man. And that verse, 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, underlines that He is related to both. There is one God and one mediator between God and men. Now you have the two parties, God and men. And the one who is the intermediary between them is the man Christ Jesus. And you can see his humanity there very clearly, the man Christ Jesus. But you also see His deity, because in that title, Christ Jesus, which means anointed Saviour, we have a pointer to the fact that He was sent by God, that He came from God, and therefore He is of the same nature as God. He is God, and therefore, being man also, we say that He is the God-man. Now, does that matter of Christ being the God-man that is so prominent in the Gospel of John? It does emphasize His deity, this book. It certainly points us to His humanity, as we will see today. But it's really setting forth the Lord as the God-man. And you will see, therefore, the connection right through the four Gospels. The first three show him, as I said, from that perspective of his humanity. They show him in his three offices. And then immediately, when you come into John's Gospel, you're seeing the one who is the, well, in the order of the Gospels, the king and the prophet and the priest, you're seeing him now as the God-man. And he can only be what the first three show him to be by being both God and man. and therefore it's a very clear order in the Gospels and we should not miss that fact. It's an important point when we come to study the Gospels to see the order in which they're written and the connection between them and especially how the first three, viewing the Lord from that perspective as His humanity, introduce us to the fourth Gospel where He is both God and man in the revelation that John gives to us of our Savior. Here in John chapter 1 and the verse 1, we find a very important verse. It says, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The title given to Christ there is this title, the Word. It's a special title that belongs only to our Saviour. It is not given to anyone else in Scripture. The original Greek for the English here, the word, is a term that gives us another term that we're all familiar with. Indeed, the original Greek is hologos. And you may have heard or may have read that term, the logos. And it's a term or a title that's given to Christ very often in theological writings. If you've ever read any of the writings of theologians, you'll come across this term. You may have wondered where it came from and what it signifies. Well, it is the Greek word for the English word that we have here where it says, in the beginning was the word. and the original Greek is Logos. So, when you come across that word, maybe in reading somebody's writings, then you'll understand where it originates. And that's why Christ is often called the Logos, because it is a way of identifying Him as He's identified here for us in John 1, verse 1, as the Word. In the beginning was the Word. Now, that name, that title, the Word, is indicative of divine revelation. It points to the fact that Christ is the Word sent by the Father to reveal the things of God to men. That's the significance of this title. He came to reveal God. He came to show God to men. He came to bring God's truth, and therefore He is the Word. Over in Hebrews chapter 1, the first three verses, we have words that Relate to what we have in John 1, Hebrews 1 verse 1, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time passed on to the fathers by the prophets, half in these last days spoke along to us by his Son. Notice those words at the beginning of verse 2, half in these last days spoke along to us by his Son. And there is a statement which tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the epitome of the revelation of God to men. God revealed Himself, He revealed His covenant of grace right down through time, gradually, progressively. And when we come to Christ, we find that Christ is the capstone of that revelation. Christ is God's final word to men. The Lord has nothing more to say to men after we see Christ as He set forth in the New Testament. He is God's final Word. He is the very height of the revelation that God has given unto men. So, this is the significance of this great title, the Word. It speaks of revelation. It speaks of God speaking to men and revealing Himself to men. And it is therefore a very important title. Now, look with me at John 1, verse 1. And look at some of the details that are set forth in that verse. where Christ is called the Word. We have the eternity of the Word. It says, in the beginning was the Word. And the point that's made there is that there never was a time when the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, became the Word. He always was the Word. In the beginning was the Word. He was present at the beginning as the Word. He always existed. He always was the Word. And this is what is being revealed to us here, the eternity of the Word. And you will notice a clear connection between John 1 verse 1 and Genesis 1 verse 1. I'm sure you could quote Genesis 1 verse 1, where it says, In the beginning God And it's the same point in time, so to speak, the very beginning of all things as far as time and creation are concerned. In the beginning, God. But then it says here, in the beginning was the Word. And therefore you have the eternity of the Word. At the beginning, the eternal God existed in the three divine persons. And Genesis 1 shows that. You have to read Genesis 1 and you'll find the Trinity there. You find God, the very opening statement, in the beginning God, then you read of the Spirit, the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. Then you read of the Word, because the whole way down the chapter it keeps saying, and God said. And that, as we will see later, is Christ. So, right there in Genesis 1 you have the Word. In that sense, He's there as God speaks. It is Christ who is speaking. Because the Bible verifies that right even here, as we will see in a moment or two, that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who spoke at creation and who called all things into being. And therefore, in the beginning was the Word, the eternity of the Word. The Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal Word stands at the head of all things. There is an eternity here. There's also His personality. It says in John 1, verse 1, "...in the beginning was the Word," and listen to this, "...and the Word was with God." The Word was with God. Now, I say personality. You have personality there because that expression, the Word was with God, It reads literally, the Word was face to face with God. And the idea is of two persons in fellowship and in communion, existing together, rejoicing in one another and enjoying one another's company. This is the sense of this term. The Word was with God. In the beginning was the Word, and in the beginning God was. And the two existed, of course, along with the Holy Spirit in the eternal Trinity. And yet the very expression here, the Word was with God, the Word was face to face with God, denotes distinct personality. And right here we are introduced to the mystery of the Trinity. The Word and God, that is, God the Father, are separate persons. The language here denotes true personality. Both are persons. Both have the same essence, because both are God. And yet each is a separate person. Now, I say to you today, brethren and sisters, that is a pointer to the Trinity. As we see here, the personality of Jesus Christ, along with the personality of God the Father, both are divine persons. They exist as divine persons. Each is God. And there is a little pointer to the Trinity of the Godhead. As I say, the Holy Spirit, of course, is also in the Trinity, but right here we're focusing on the Father and the Son. And what I just want to say to you at this point is simply this. This is revealed to us, not for us to try to explain, but for us to accept. You see, that is where men go wrong. Men come with their minds to Scripture, and because they can't understand something, and therefore can't explain it, they then say, well, this can't be true. This is just not right. We can't explain this, therefore it can't be so. But that is not the way to approach God's Word. There are certain things that we can work our way through and explain, but there are truths that are not explained to us. There are truths that are simply presented to us for our acceptance, our belief. This is what God would have us to do when we come to deal with the doctrine of the Trinity, taking the personality, not only of Christ, but of the other two persons in the Godhead. It's revealed in the book. God the Father is a divine person and a distinct person. God the Son is a divine and a distinct person. God the Holy Spirit is a divine and a distinct person. That's what the Bible reveals. And let me say this to you. If that is not true, then there's no salvation for men. None whatsoever. Because our salvation rests upon the great doctrine of the eternal Trinity, the triune Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our salvation rests on all that. I haven't time to go into that today, but I just make that statement. A denial of the personality of Christ is a denial of the Trinity, essentially, and therefore is to undermine all hope for poor lost sinners. That's how serious it is. And we must always stand clearly on the truth of not only the eternity of the Word, or of Christ, but the personality of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then there's, of course, His deity. I've said this in so many words already, but just look at it in the text again, John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. There's His eternity. And the Word was with God. There's His personality. And then it says, and the Word was God. There is His deity. Now it's very important to keep in mind the opening words of that text and relate them to every other statement in the text. That is, the words, in the beginning. So if you take those words and then tie them in with the final little clause there, the Word was God, read it this way, in the beginning the Word was God. Now that language, can't be understood in any other way except as it expresses the true deity of Jesus Christ. We've already seen that He's a distinct personality, but we notice here that the text does not confuse Him with the Father. with God the Father. And therefore, these points are very clear. But in the original text, the language signifies that from all eternity, the Word was truly and essentially God. The Word was God. In the beginning, the Word was God, which means that before the beginning, the Word was God. The Word is therefore deity. These points are all clearly set before us here in this marvelous statement. Now those words at the end of verse 1, the word was God, speaking of the deity of Christ, are of course words that are hated vehemently by the cults, and especially by the Russellites. That's their real name. They call themselves Jehovah Witnesses, but they're really Russellites. They are a cult and they wickedly, that was their founder, that's what I'm simply saying, but anyhow, they wickedly try to pervert these words in order to undermine the deity of Jesus Christ. And you may have heard their own statement on this. They'll say, oh no, that really is the word was a God. But the Greek text does not allow that. I'm not getting into that technical stuff today, but the Greek text, of course, shows that is utter nonsense. What you have here is the right, the correct translation of these words, the Word was God. All that such cults accomplish when they say that kind of thing, the Word was a God, is to display their ignorance of New Testament Greek. But more than that, they display their devilish hatred for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a statement of the Lord's deity. The Word was God. Now, notice how that is proved by some of the other things that are said immediately afterwards. Look at verse 3. All things were made by Him. Here's the act of creation. And the word by there means through. All things were made through Him. And it says then, and without him was not anything made that was made. So you have here the act of creation attributed to our Lord Jesus Christ. I said a while ago that we would come and look at this for a moment or two, and we want to do that right now. I referred you to Genesis 1 where it says, In the beginning God, and then it goes on to say, and God said. And God said. And I said to you, that is Christ who is in view there. So turn to Psalm 33 and look at verse 6. Psalm 33, verse 6. And notice what it states in this verse, "...by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. You have there Jehovah, the Lord, in capitals it refers to Jehovah. So you have God the Father. Then it says, "...by the word of the Lord." There is the Word now, there's Christ. Because He is the Word, remember, that's the title given to Him in John 1, verse 1, and in other places as well in the New Testament. So here you have it, by the Word of the Lord, by the Word of Jehovah, where the heavens made and all the host of them, by the breath of His mouth. And the word for breath there refers to the Holy Spirit. In fact, in the Hebrew, it is the same word as is translated, either breath or spirit or wind. So, here is the eternal trinity in Psalm 33 verse 6 with regard to creation. You have the Father Jehovah, you have the Word of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have the Holy Spirit. And, therefore, it's a statement of creation, that divine act of creation, and that can only be the act of one who is truly God, one who possesses deity, and here we are shown that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator, is the eternal God, the one who called all things into being. Hebrews 1 again, and look at verse 3 this time, and notice what is revealed there to our minds concerning this very matter of creation. It says in Hebrews 1, 3, "...who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, are upholding all things by the word of His power." That is Christ. Christ upholds all things by the word of His power. This is a remarkable statement. All things come into being by the word. The Lord spoke. The eternal Word spoke and everything came into existence out of nothing. And yet the same creation is upheld by that same Word. All things are upheld, it says here, by the Word of His power. It's the same kind of thought as you have in Colossians, where it says that by Him all things consist, or all things hang together. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who created all things, and the one by whom all things are upheld, and therefore He possesses deity. Again in John 1, not only verse 3, but then look at verse 4, it says, "...in Him was life, and the life was the light of men." That statement in verse 4 could not be made of a creature, because it's talking about one who is the source of life. was life and the life was the light of men. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ again spoken of as the one who is the source of life and once more that is a quality being the source of life, self-existent himself and giving life to others that belongs alone to one who is God. So you have the eternity of the Word and the personality of the Word and you have the deity of the Word. But then we come to something else that's in this passage that really introduces us to the whole of the Gospel of John. You have the identity of the Word. Look at verse 14. And it says, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word was made flesh. He who, as the Word took, a human nature, He came into this world. It says He was made flesh. He came to reveal the Father again. Look at verse 18. It says, No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. He came to reveal the Father, He came to bring grace to men. Verse 16, "...of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace." Now, in order for that to happen, in other words, in order for this person, the Lord Jesus, to reveal the Father, no man has seen God. That means no man understands God, no man will ever come to know God except through Christ. And in order for Jesus Christ to be the fullness of grace to men, He must become man. So, notice that. In order for God to be revealed, in order for men to be saved by grace, Jesus Christ, the Word, must become flesh. And that's what we have here. And that's why I talk about the identity of the Word. The Word became flesh. You can put it this way, He is the Word incarnate. which is essentially the theme of the Gospel of John. I said earlier that while in this book there is such an emphasis on the deity, yet its humanity is not set aside. And what we really have in John's Gospel, in connection again with the first three Gospels, is the one who is the mediator now being revealed as to how that all came about, by the Word becoming flesh. The Word incarnate, the one who is with the Father from all eternity, taking our humanity and becoming man himself, entering into the world of men. John 1.14 is really the key verse of the whole book. You may think it's John 1.1, but it's not. John 1.1 is very important. sets up the stage, but John 1.14 is the key verse of the Gospel of John. The Word was made flesh. What a statement that is. Now, there you have the miracle of the Lord's incarnation, because there is a miracle in view when you read those words. The Word was made flesh. We could read that, might even scratch our heads and say, well, that's beyond me. That's a very deep statement, the Word was made flesh. And there is a tremendous depth there. We're dealing, of course, with the supernatural. What we must remember is, in dealing with the supernatural, and when we read these words, we are dealing with the miracle of all miracles. When He who is the eternal Word actually became man, in the sense of taking our humanity unto Himself, And throughout the rest of the book of John, there's an unfolding of all the results of that great miracle, the Word becoming flesh, and what it meant, what it brought in, what it delivered as far as God and men are concerned. This is the subject of the Gospel of John, the Word being made flesh, and all that that meant as far as both God and men are concerned. And therefore, in this text we have, in a very clear way, a very precise way, everything that the gospel of John sets before us. It all revolves around the Word becoming flesh, that is, the incarnation of the Word. As I say, that is a miracle. It's the greatest miracle of all time. No other miracle is like this, that God would become man. That's why Paul says, In 1 Timothy 3 verse 16, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And those words really underline the nature of this miracle. Great is the mystery of godliness. The word mystery means that which is made known to us. So don't think that the word mystery is referring to something that's withheld from you. No. Here's something that's made known to you. That's what the word mystery really signifies. Something that God has revealed. And what is it? God was manifest in the flesh. So, that text tells us there's nothing like this. Great. Great is this miracle and this mystery of godliness, the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal God, taking our humanity. Now, in John's Gospel, as I said earlier, we do see his humanity. For example, look at John 4, verse 6. It says, Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey. There is the true man. He felt weary. He sat down on the well. because he was weary. This is amazing, that he who is truly God, and yet also is truly man, felt the limitations and the frailties of other men. He was tired, he was weak, he was fatigued, he was thirsty. He is truly man, yet he is also God. We cannot fathom that. But you see, again, it's revealed to us. Both are revealed to us. And we're not in the business of trying to explain it. We're in the business of accepting it. And furthermore, we're in the business of rejoicing in it. Because the one whom we see here sitting by the well at Sychar is our Savior, who identified Himself with us in all our need. And He shows that by these very features of weariness and thirst. He came to save men, He came to identify Himself with fallen men and He shows it, that He's truly man by what you read in a verse like this. Or another verse in John is John 11, 35, that great statement, Jesus wept. You have His weariness and you have His weeping. And there are other little indications in the Gospel of John of the Lord's humanity. As I said earlier, it is in the first three Gospels that the major emphasis on the humanity is found. But it doesn't mean it's not in John. It is in John, but it's not there as much as in the other Gospels. But it is there. He's weary, he weeps, because he's truly man. But the major emphasis is on the fact that He is God. And there are many ways in which the true deity of Christ, the fact that He is the Word, the eternal Word, made flesh, and therefore His deity shining through. There are many ways in which His deity is seen in the Gospel of John. This book is a marvelous revelation and presentation of this great truth. And I haven't time, of course, and it's not within the scope of this kind of a study, to go into the Gospel of John in detail and bring out to you every proof of the deity of Christ. I can introduce you to this. And what we find, for example, in the book of John is a tremendous demonstration of the Lord's omnipotence, the word meaning all power. This book shows it in a marvelous way, in various ways. And one of the ways in which the book shows the omnipotence of Christ is by means of the eight miracles that are recorded in this gospel. There are only eight miracles recorded in John, seven before the cross, and then one after the cross. And I've given them to you in your notes today. We're not going to look at each one or turn up the passages, but what I want you to notice is that in the Gospel of John, the word for miracle is the word sign in the Greek language. And the significance of that word is that it points to something. These are called the sign miracles, these eight miracles in the Gospel of John, the sign miracles. And the word sign signifies pointing to something. So what has been pointed out in John's Gospel? Well, the one who turned the water into wine is God. That's the first of the miracles in John's Gospel. Indeed, we're told that is the first miracle the Lord ever performed. This beginning of miracles, it says in John 2. But think about the turning of the water into wine. Think about, for example, feeding the five thousand. It is found in the other Gospels as well as John, Think about it. Think about giving sight to the man born blind in John chapter 9 and the other miracles as well, raising Lazarus from the dead and so on. When you start to think about those miracles, those three especially, the water into wine, the feeding of the 5,000, giving sight to the man born blind, you are actually reading of direct acts of creation. Now if you take turning the water into wine. What you've got to remember is that in those water pots, at first it was water, and then it became wine. We often read that story and think about that miracle, and we miss the whole point, that the Lord Jesus Christ created wine. That's what happened. It has to be that way. It's the same with the feeding of the 5,000. We look at the little boy, and he's got his five loaves and a couple of fish, and the Lord, we're told, He breaks the loaves, for example, and He starts to hand out the bread, and He keeps on handing out bread until 5,000 people are fed. And remember, it was 5,000 men, and then there were women and children. And the Lord keeps handing out this bread. And you and I read that, we don't really get the point that on the very spot, the Lord Jesus Christ created bread. There was bread there in the boys' lunch. But you see, the miracle is that the Lord created all the bread that fed the 5,000 men and then the women and children. Because in the original language we are told that He only broke the loaves once. Only once. Which means that the Lord just didn't stand there with a loaf in His hand and He kept doing this. That's not what happened. The Lord just broke those loaves once and then He created bread. Right in the spot that fed the 5,000 people. When the man who was born blind in John 9 was healed, and of course there are other blind people in the other Gospels who were healed, like Bartimaeus, but it says specifically of the man in John 9, he was born blind. That means there never was sight in that man's case. Light never entered his eyes. He was born blind, which means that when the Lord healed him, He created light. He created the ability to see, whatever way you want to put it. It was an act of creation, right there and then for that man in John chapter 9. And we can read all the details there of John 9 of that miracle and miss that point. But this is the thing I want you to notice, that in each case there was an act of creation demonstrating the true deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it was the Lord who performed the miracle. It wasn't that God the Father performed it through Christ as a kind of a channel or a conduit. Rather, it was Jesus Christ Who changed the water into wine, or who created wine, who created the bread, and who created the ability to see? It was the Lord who did that. And only God is able to do those things. So, here's how we see the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's how we see the miracle of His incarnation. The Word was made flesh. And the man who walked around in Galilee and throughout Judea for those three years, or over three years, was God manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh. And that's the great burden of John's Gospel, to set that forth, to demonstrate that truth, to show the proof of it over and over again. I've only referred to the miracles in this book. You could also, and I just mention this for your own study, you can go through the book of John and you will find that many, many times the Lord uses the term, I am. It doesn't mean it's not found in the other Gospels, but it's found in John's Gospel in a very preeminent way. There are seven occasions where it's accompanied by a metaphor. He says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world and so on. The seven I am's as we call them. But actually, while there are seven that are accompanied by these metaphors, I am the bread and I am the light and so on, there are many more than that. I think, as my memory serves me right, there are 25 I am's in John's Gospel. And there are other statements as well in which we hear the Lord speaking as Jehovah. Because that expression, I am, in the New Testament is taken right out of the Old Testament. It is taken right from Exodus chapter 3 where it is first found, I am that I am. It is a derivative of the name Jehovah. It is connected with that marvelous title. And remember when the Lord said, I am, in John, as He does over and over again, He is saying that He is Jehovah. Remember whenever they came to arrest Him in the garden and He said to them, Who do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And it tells you there in John chapter 18 that the Lord said, and in our English Bible it is put this way, I am He. but the word he's in italics and all the Lord said was I am and we're told that they went backwards and fell over. Why? Because the I am had just spoken and therefore they felt it and yet in their hatred and in their blindness they persisted to move against the Lord. But there is just a little example of the use of the word, or the term, I am, and the power that accompanied it. The word made flesh. This is the theme of John's Gospel. Christ incarnate. And I trust that as we have just brought these few thoughts to you, you will run with them and you will take them and you will study them out for yourselves and look into this book even more by the Lord's help. and by the enablement of His Spirit. And may God bless His Word to our souls today. Let us just bow in prayer together as we come to a closing. We commend our ways to the Saviour. Our God and Father, we pray that Thou wilt remember us. We confess, O Lord, our own frailty and our own weakness of mind. And yet, O Lord, we thank Thee that Thou hast brought us to see, to understand who Jesus Christ truly is. And Lord, we would say like Thomas on that night when the Saviour appeared in the upper room and that disciple realized and recognized that thou didst rise from the dead and his cry was, My Lord and My God, I will thank Thee that the One who became flesh and who took our nature and died in our place, rose again and truly is the God-man and is the God-man forever. Help us, O Lord, to rejoice in these truths and be with us as we continue on with Thee. And may Thy Word be written with power upon our hearts. We ask all this for Christ's sake and in His name and for His glory. Amen.